2nd-grader selling family's organic cookbook to feed local gardens

Alicia Serratos, 7, holds up a copy of her organic cookbook, &#8220;Recipes To Grow,&#8221; while standing in the garden at The Ecology Center in San Juan Capistrano. Proceeds from the book will be donated to the center's Grow Your Own program, which helps support organic gardens at local schools. JEFF ANTENORE, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

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• "Recipes to Grow" is for sale in The Ecology Center's Tools for Change general store, inside a restored 1878 farmhouse at 32701 Alipaz St. in San Juan Capistrano. The cookbook also is available online: blurb.com/b/5173400-recipes-to-grow

She knows milkweed attracts butterflies, and that you can swap out the bread in eggs Benedict for a slice of roasted eggplant.

When she’s not running 5K races or creating art projects, Alicia, 7, loves spending time in the garden and helping her mom cook healthy meals. That passion inspired the second-grader to create a cookbook filled with organic recipes, which she’s selling to help grow gardens in local schools.

“That way people know about eating organic,” Alicia said. “Then they can live longer.”

Like so many good ideas, Alicia’s started with a problem.

Monica Serratos was stuck in a rut last summer, making the same rotation of meals for her husband and four children. So she invited Alicia and her younger siblings into the kitchen to brainstorm ideas that might tempt their varied palettes, with plans to create some new recipe cards.

“Alicia said, ‘Why don’t we make it into a cookbook?’” Serratos recalled.

She and Alicia began pouring over recipes, tweaking them to make them healthier. Taste tests revealed a few disasters, Serratos remembered with a laugh. But they managed to add three or four recipes to the book each week throughout the summer, finishing with more than 40 that range from breakfast to dessert.

Serratos used the self-publishing platform Blurb to create “Recipes to Grow,” adding photos of each dish, an introduction about how the project came about and a picture of a smiling Alicia on the cover.

She told her daughter she could sell the cookbooks and use any profits for something fun, thinking Alicia might opt for a trip to Disneyland or Build-A-Bear. Instead, Alicia suggested they help schools start gardens so students could learn to grow healthy food for themselves.

Alicia has sold more than 60 books so far, hawking them to family, members of her Girl Scout troop, outside of a Sprouts Farmers Market and online. One woman bought a copy for her son-in-law, who runs a farm-to-table restaurant in Santa Ana. Alicia now has an open invitation to come work with him in his kitchen.

The first $300 in profits went to Alicia’s school, Viejo Elementary, which is just getting its organic garden off the ground after a couple of years of planning. Each grade level has its own garden bed to tend, with carrots, sunflowers and more taking root.

That wouldn’t have been possible, Serratos said, without assistance from The Ecology Center in San Juan Capistrano.

The nonprofit center is in the second year of its Grow Your Own program, helping to establish and bolster gardens at schools throughout Orange and San Diego counties. Viejo Elementary was one of 10 schools chosen for the program this year, director Meg Hiesinger said.

On Monday, Alicia surprised Hiesinger with an envelope holding $90. She hopes it’ll be the first of many donations to support Grow Your Own.

Alicia wants to create a second edition this summer. She’ll take the photos and help design the finished product, while her 6-year-old sister, Annabelle, should be old enough to help in the kitchen.

One recipe already is on ice: “Lemonade,” she said, “but with strawberries instead of food coloring.”

Alicia Serratos, 7, holds up a copy of her organic cookbook, “Recipes To Grow,” while standing in the garden at The Ecology Center in San Juan Capistrano. Proceeds from the book will be donated to the center's Grow Your Own program, which helps support organic gardens at local schools. JEFF ANTENORE, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Alicia Serratos, 7, author of a cookbook titled “Recipes To Grow,” picks Swiss chard to feed to chickens. , JEFF ANTENORE, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Alicia Serratos, 7, shows some of her favorite recipes to Meg Hiesinger, director of the Grow Your Own program at The Ecology Center in San Juan Capistrano. , PHOTOS: JEFF ANTENORE, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Copies of "Recipes To Grow," a cookbook by 7-year-old Alicia Serratos of Mission Viejo, sit for sale on a shelf at The Ecology Center in San Juan Capistrano. JEFF ANTENORE, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Alicia Serratos, 7, author of "Recipes To Grow" cookbook, checks on eggs in the chicken coop at The Ecology Center in San Juan Capistrano. The proceeds from her book will be donated to The Ecology Center's program to help support organic gardens at local schools. JEFF ANTENORE, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Alicia Serratos, 7, author of the "Recipes To Grow" cookbook, picks lettuce to feed to chickens at The Ecology Center in San Juan Capistrano. JEFF ANTENORE, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Alicia Serratos, 7, author of the "Recipes To Grow" cookbook, feeds chickens at The Ecology Center in San Juan Capistrano. The proceeds from her book will be donated to the center's program that supports organic gardens at local schools. JEFF ANTENORE, CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Alicia feeds chickens at The Ecology Center. The proceeds from her book will be donated to the center's program to help support organic gardens at local schools. JEFF ANTENORE , CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

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